His bold, ambitious words befitted the city in which they were delivered. On the New York leg of Liverpool’s summer tour, Brendan Rodgers was asked his main aim for the year.
‘I want a trophy this year,’ Rodgers replied without hesitation. ‘I want the club to win big trophies again. The expectancy this season is continual improvement. We want to win. To be successful is winning trophies.’
That statement was given on August 1, when hopes were high and confidence was soaring. Fast forward to December 17 and the picture is dramatically different. There has been no continual improvement, just a litany of disappointment and frustration.
Still, though, Rodgers’ dream is alive. Though the two biggest prizes — the Barclays Premier League and Champions League — have disappeared, the Capital One Cup could yet be the competition that turns the tide for Liverpool’s embattled manager.
This, after all, is a trophy that has spent more time being polished at Anfield than anywhere else. Liverpool have won the League Cup a record-breaking eight times, most recently in 2012. They have also contested the most finals (11) and semi-finals (14).
History, however, is no help to Rodgers in these trying moments. To stand a chance of stopping the rot that has set in, Liverpool will need to quarry into their reserves of resilience and find a way of negotiating another night that is littered with pitfalls. Bournemouth, leaders of the Sky Bet Championship, versus struggling Liverpool under floodlights in a tight stadium has ‘upset’ written all over it. If that were to happen, if another ray of light were snuffed out, the damage it would cause to a campaign would be huge. Liverpool dare not lose.
‘We want to win this competition,’ Rodgers said. ‘It is the first trophy (of the season) you can win, so it is a priority. If we can get the victory and get through, hopefully that will give us the impetus to go on. It’s going to be really tough but it is a challenge we are up for.’
Rodgers set the right tone at Melwood yesterday. From the moment he walked into the media room, dressed in club tracksuit, there was no sense he was stewing on the results that have torpedoed his side’s ambitions. But words are meaningless unless they are backed up with performances and Rodgers, who admitted at Old Trafford that Liverpool had lost their ‘team ethos’, will need no reminding that critics will be studying every move of his players, looking for cracks.
‘It’s not a distraction,’ said Rodgers, batting away the perception of problems in the dressing room ‘I know the players I have. They are a wonderful group, honest. Some are still adapting to being at Liverpool, which is very difficult.
‘The spirit is strong, you saw (against Manchester United) at the weekend the work the players put in. It is not rocket science, for people to look and analyse why we’re not what we were last season.
‘We have world-class players missing from our group. We’ve been inconsistent and we have got many more games this season. We are adapting to the challenges this year and learning. As the season goes on, we will get stronger and stronger.’
That may be so but, at present, it seems like he does not know his best team.
Mario Balotelli — whose FA hearing into a misconduct charge will be held tomorrow — misses the game tonight with a groin problem and Glen Johnson is sidelined after pulling up on Sunday, so Rodgers will change his starting line-up for the 27th game in a row. ‘The reality is we haven’t scored enough goals or been enough of a creative threat,’ Rodgers acknowledged. ‘I’m not going to persevere with a system that has not been creative for us.’
Raheem Sterling will be trusted to convert Liverpool’s chances at Bournemouth. Unnecessary scrutiny on his contract has been created — Bayern Munich are the latest side he has been linked with — but Rodgers is calm, and said: ‘I don’t think there’s anything affecting him. He leaves his representatives to work with the club to hopefully organise a deal.
‘All I ever asked him to do is concentrate on football, prepare well, and the performances will come. I think he’s shown that consistently. He’s been a real threat and a top young player.’
Kick-off: 9.45pm, Goldsands Stadium.
Referee: Mark Clattenburg. – Daily Mail